New OPM Rule Makes It Easier to Remove Federal Employees for Suitability and Misconduct

The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) finalized a major overhaul of federal suitability rules that expands agencies' authority to remove current employees for suitability-related conduct.

Under a final rule published in the Federal Register, OPM is giving agencies broader authority to remove employees for suitability-related issues. It will allow agencies to determine whether current employees are “fit” for federal service, subjecting current feds to the suitability test that applies to prospective job candidates. 

OPM said the rule makes the suitability and fitness process more efficient and rigorous and will ensure consistent application of suitability actions and merit systems principles. 

OPM also expanded the types of conduct that may support a suitability determination, including failing to timely file tax returns, refusing to sign or violating a required non-disclosure agreement (NDA), and theft or misuse of government resources.

It comes after President Trump issued a memo in 2025, instructing OPM to come up with a system that allows OPM to remove employees for “post-appointment” conduct outside of Chapter 75 procedures. 

Chapter 75 addresses post-appointment misconduct and includes merit systems protections.

In its final rule OPM wrote, “illogically, the government has far greater ability to bar someone from federal employment who has committed a serious crime or misconduct in the past than it does to remove someone who engages in the exact same behavior as a federal employee.”

In a separate rule, OPM has proposed taking over suitability determinations from the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB). That rule is pending.

Critics say the series of moves – such as requiring an NDA and the suitability changes– all amount to one thing: making it easier to remove federal employees. 

“When you put the determinations of what those interpretations are into the hands of the political head of an agency, our concern is that it makes it easier to politicize the removal of federal employees . . . It really centralizes everything under OPM in a way that hasn’t been done before,” Partnership for Public Service Vice President of Policy and Stakeholder Engagement Jenny Mattingly to GovExec.